Kamarie Chapman

When It Happened

Kamarie Chapman comes from an island in Washington State.  She holds a BA in Theatre Arts from Western Washington University and will graduate from UNM with her MFA this spring.  She wrote A Play About Fish, which recently toured Washington State and throughout England with the WWU/KCACTF British Arts Tour.  She has gained regional recognition from The Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival for two one-act plays in two separate regions and has been published in volumes one and two of NorthNorthWest: A Collection of Short Plays, a publication by Northwest Playwrights' Alliance.  She works at VSA/North 4th Arts Center as a performing arts instructor and as the Artistic Director for Equilibrium Theatre Company in Albuquerque, NM.  Other plays include: Damn You Edward Tootsie, Lester: An Examination in Tragedy, and Unravel.

Aaron Frale

Economically Viable

Aaron Frale has been writing comedy for years. He won "Best Writer" as co-writer for a feature film called "Hamlet: The Vampire Slayer" at the B-Movie Film Fest in New York. He co-founded the sketch comedy group Eat, Drink and Be Larry. His plays, sketches, and films have been floating about the Albuquerque scene. He currently resides with his girlfriend, Felicia, a small black dog, and a cat with way too many stripes.

M.E. (Beth) Iha

Red Umbrellas

M.E. (Beth) Iha took a playwriting class as a grad student in politics, just for fun. She placed 2nd in a regional Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (KCACTF) 10-minute playwriting competion and hasn't looked back. She went on to win a couple more KCACTF awards, one of which gained her access to an intensive at the Kennedy Center where she met Jim Linnell. She discussed the possibility with him of entering into the Graduate Dramatic Writing program at UNM and started the following year. So far, it has been a challenging and rewarding experience that has led to the development of many new plays. She will continue to pursue playwriting for as long as her mind allows.

Erin Phillips

THAT ONE FORBIDDEN THING

Erin Phillips is a writer, actor, director and musician from Albuquerque, NM.  She graduated with a BA in Theatre Arts (Acting and Directing) and Women’s and Gender Studies from Beloit College in Beloit, WI in 2005.  She studied at the Trinity/LaMaMa ETC Performance Studies Immersion program in New York, NY.  While there, she wrote and performed in the premiere of 3 Eves: There Is No Adam at the club at LaMaMa ETC.  Erin is a member of Tricklock Company, the theatre in residence at UNM.  Erin has played the fiddle for most of her life, and has created and performed original and traditional old-time and folk music in Tricklock’s original show Black River Falling, which premiered in April of 2007 and was followed by an international tour to Europe over the summer of 2007.  The Cupboard is her first piece to premiere in the Words Afire Festival of New Plays.